Maeve had a good week at school and has been practicing her growing skills at home. She likes to try writing her numbers on her easel (5 has a hat on top apparently), which is something they’ve been working on at Black Bear. In March (beginning next week!), Maeve will go to school 3 mornings a week to complete her makeup days so that will offer her even more opportunities to learn. She is working on her spelling too, as evidenced by my discovery of her with her word puzzles which she completed all by herself! We are so proud of how hard she is working at Little Gym too, trying new things and enjoying the process.

This month has been a busy one – kicked it off with Maeve getting over a head cold (which unfortunately she decided to share with Grandma when she returned from Hawaii) but then we got into our new routine of going to school two mornings a week (Tues/Thurs). It’s a long story of how this came to be at the 11th hour, but we are happy that Maeve could continue with her same teacher and we’re hoping that going twice a week and dropping her off at the door helps with her separation sadness (unfortunately no progress yet…). We have Little Gym with a couple of her buddies (Evan & Henry) on Fridays now too before art class!

One of Maeve’s favorite new things to do is put on a talent show or magic trick… It is an adorable activity that she began in earnest the night of the Super Bowl. She repeatedly buried Duffy in blankets, waved her magic wand of colored pegs stuck together as she stood on her stool in the doorway, and shouted Abracadabra! She also has done talent shows where she climbs on the stool to do tree pose (balancing on one leg). The cutest part is she’ll pretend to get mad when we clap and cheer (sometimes she bows first) and state that the talent show/magic trick is over…she then picks up her stool, storms off for a bit, and begins all over again!

Maeve’s classes started up again – we are continuing with Little Gym and adding another art class. We still go on Fridays to her painting class with Ms. Cheryl, but will also go to Family Ceramics on Saturdays! We can’t wait to go, but missed it this weekend since we were enjoying a get-away to the Wisconsin Dells. This was our 3rd annual trip with the Reed-Ejercito family and we had a really fun time at a new park this year – Wilderness. The girls were so brave on some bigger slides this year…you can see some photos of our trip in the gallery. Maeve looked like she got beat up on the trip though unfortunately, as she scraped both her knees and has a few bruises on her chin and face from tumbling out of bed during the night. Fortunately, she doesn’t remember it though.

Today would have been her last day of school this session, but unfortunately Maeve threw up when we arrived at school today so we turned around and went home. She has been fine the rest of the day though, so I’m not sure why she felt ill. We have a break next week and then she might have to begin with a new teacher and class. I was hoping to find that out today, but we’ll have to wait another week I guess…

We want to wish Katie a happy belated birthday – we had a yummy outing to celebrate with her at Twin Anchors on Sunday – and a happy early birthday to Grandad who will be celebrating this weekend with Nanna, who returns from her visit to the Bahamas. Grandma is coming to visit us next weekend and we are planning some museum outings and playdates with friends to stay busy during these long winter months. Hope you are warm…

At bed time she was restless again, so we went back up a couple of times. The last time I went she told me she didn’t want her flashlight because it was making scary shapes on the ceiling. I thought she fell asleep after that, only to come upstairs later to find her door open, a cat on her bed and Maeve in ours! ADORABLE. Chris carried her back to hers where she slept on her own until 7:30 a.m. – we continue to be so proud of our big girl!!!

The rest of this week had been a busy one – we celebrated the first snow of the season which Maeve thought was delicious. She also had a great week at her Little Gym class – she was a great listener and is starting to participate with the teacher a bit on her own. This week she used the drum sticks and followed along with the instructions while I sat by the wall, and she did many straddle rolls all by herself throughout class! We have enjoyed playdates with friends and baking Christmas cookies too.

The two major accomplishments of the week are that we moved Maeve into her new purple room, which was completed on Tuesday with the installation of the carpet, and she is wearing underwear and using the potty very consistently!

Maeve immediately did somersaults on her new carpet and enjoyed running around her room before we moved the furniture in, and she hasn’t had any trouble adjusting to sleeping in there. I thought it was really funny that she woke up after the 1st night in her new room saying “there’s no S on the wall” (the alphabet animals in her nursery are not yet moved). We will add a mattress after Christmas so she can start to think about choosing to sleep in a big bed!

Maeve has been doing a great job using the potty at home and has begun to independently realize she has to go without us asking her. She even had her first successful public restroom experience at dinner with Nanna and me at Caro Mio on Friday night. She told me she had to go twice and did a great job both times! She pooped on the potty today and was awarded a candy cane even though it was breakfast time…we are so proud. We know that accidents will happen and I’m not looking forward to stopping more often on our upcoming car trips, but so far we are thrilled with how well it is going!

Our art class is over for the year, but we will start up again next month and will also be participating in a family ceramics class on Saturdays so that Chris can join us for one of Maeve’s favorite activities! We are off to Michigan next week to continue the Christmas celebrations… To all a good night .

We are enjoying a relaxing Thanksgiving at Grandma’s house, reflecting on all of the joys and accomplishments of the past year. Good health and safe travels, especially to all our family out in Colorado this weekend, and we hope to see everyone soon!

We started out with a visit from Nana and Grandad. They came to stay with Maeve while we took our first official weekend away without her. We had a great time seeing our friends Christi and Martin in Raleigh, North Carolina and Maeve had such fun with her grandparents and Duffy!

This week we enjoyed a few days with Auntie Beth & Uncle Matt. They were able to help me out one morning by babysitting for Maeve and join us for her art class too! The weather has been so warm that we had some quality park time as well.

The room we are renovating is nearly done – it is a beautiful new shade of eggplant purple and awaits carpet and a new window. Maeve won’t move into it until after the holidays most likely, but she is very excited about the color she picked and we are just happy it’s almost entirely repaired.

Following Duffy’s recent visit and Grandad’s encouragement to read to him, Maeve got down on the floor yesterday in our room to read to Kyra. Her favorite book is “Gallop” and she can read it through! She also loves to act out the movements, and she said to Kyra “spring like a cat – see, you could do that too Kyra!”

This morning when discussing where we would sit for breakfast, Maeve asked us to put her high chair away. We asked her if she was done with it and she said she’d like to sit in her booster at the table with us – our baby is such a big girl!

We had a fun Halloween eve at Reilly’s birthday party and cousin Lucy’s house…and a great time trick or treating in Oak Park with Olivia! Adorable pictures are in the gallery.